The Misty World of Arial Hollyberry

Arial has been after me for days to write down my impressions of the celebration of Midsummer in the faerie realm. It isn’t that I have forgotten dancing with the faeries in wild abandon, after all, I have faeries coming and going through the ivy hedge all the time. No, it isn’t that I have forgotten, I just don’t know where to begin.

Arial poked me again. “Begin at the beginning.” She spiraled around my head, tracing intricate patterns in the air with the tips of her fingers. How frustrating it is to try and write with faerie wings buzzing in my ears! “Arial, you sound like something out of Alice in Wonderland, begin at the beginning. You know very well that it’s the “beginning” that I am having a problem with.” She did a mid-air cartwheel, as she passed in front of my nose, I blew on her wings making her bobble.

I want to stop here to tell you that, yes, I did find Arial (she was waiting for me  on the grassy slope leading up to the  firefly meadow, silhouetted against the sun as it hung on the horizon), and yes, Odette came with me to the celebration. She rode with a fire faerie on a particularly stout dragonfly. When the entire court landed at the bottom of the path, the plump dragonfly that had been transporting Odette wobbled off into the tall grass where it proceeded to flop down and stretch out  its tired wings. I could swear I heard a loud, heavy sigh of relief coming from its general direction.

Arial giggled at my teasing. “You know, I met Alice’s white rabbit once, very congenial little fellow. The flower beds are nice enough, but I didn’t really care for the caterpillar.” I gave her a a skeptical glance. “You really want me to believe that Alice was a real girl, and that Wonderland exists?” As I think about it now, that was a dumb question. Arial twirled around, making her skirts flare out. She raised one eyebrow and gave me one of her famous quirky smiles. “Do you really want people to believe there are faeries in your backyard?” Like I said, dumb question.

“Point well taken, but I do think that we are way off the point now. The question on the table is, what was the beginning. And something else… should I tell everyone what happened when Orlaith found out that you had a hand in sending me off into the faerie nevernever?” With all due respect Jim Butcher, but that is a wonderful word! Arial frowned and kicked her toe against the side of my keyboard then paced back and forth in front of the monitor, thinking hard.

“No, I don’t think we have to include that.” She scratched her head. “I think you should start when you arrived at the meadow, you know, when the sun was going down. Oh! and you can put something in about how wonderful it was to see me again!” I hunched over and looked at her sternly (I went cross eyed, but it made my position very clear). “I’ll just bet you’d like that.” She nodded vigorously. I pinched my lower lip. “No, I think I’ll start with waking up on the chase lounge in the backyard. After all, it did seem like a dream.”

“When I think about the times I’ve been to the palace, the troll, the time when I changed into a cat, and getting mail delivered via sail cloth, and everything else that has happened since seeing my little faeries.” Arial feigned surprise, I ignored her and went on. “Midsummer was definitely something dreams are made of, not that that is a bad thing mind you, but something that will take a little explaining.”

I looked at the clock that hangs on the wall to the side of my computer. “It’s almost five o’clock and I have to give the dogs their dinner.” Arial looked at me suspiciously. “Oh, I promise that I will let everyone know the details tomorrow, hey, you can stay and share the dogs dinner!”

Arial jumped up from where she had been sitting on my camera and shot out of the room. The last thing I heard as she headed for the ivy hedge was…”eeeeuww!” I do love it when I get the last word with a faerie.

© Tami Ruesch, The Misty World of Arial Hollyberry, 2009.

I looked around and saw that we were standing in the grassy meadow that I have come to know so well. Funny how it has started to feel a little like home. I couldn’t help thinking, at least my life couldn’t be called boring! The Palace rose up in front of us. The last time I saw it, it was sparkling ice blue, all icicles and frost. Now, it was a warm pink. Vines of Wisteria and Honeysuckle wrapped around the columns, ferns were growing wildly everywhere. The crystal doors had be replaced with bamboo reeds that were woven together to look like gigantic butterfly wings.

Wow! The spring faeries certainly decorated different than the frost faeries. Cythia lead the way up the steps. When we reached the top, the butterfly wings parted to reveal a beautiful fairy hovering just inside the arch. Tiny pink and purple flowers were braided into her long blond hair, and her crown consisted of masses of multicolored butterflies. I looked a little closer and saw that the wings of the butterflies were constantly moving.

Before my eyes she transformed into a tall graceful elven like being, her gown was made up of layer upon layer of leaves that had been interwoven with a sheer gossamer fabric, it wasn’t a fabric I had ever seen before.

She came forward, took my hands in hers and smiled. Have you ever seen anyone smile with their whole face? It was like that, but more, when she smiled her face actually lit up, it glowed. “Welcome! Please do forgive me my bad manners. I had hoped to greet you much earlier than this, and under more favorable circumstances. Come and sit with me.” She turned and held out a hand to Cythia. “Dearest, would you please have some nectar brought for our guest?”

I was at a loss for words, I’m afraid I gave a very rude first impression but I didn’t know how to respond. Here was a faerie queen treating me like I was the royalty, and it didn’t help that Arial and the guard had retreated politely into the background. “Your Highness…”  she held up a hand to stop me. “Please, call me Alina.” Okay, if I wasn’t already feeling totally undeserving, that did it! I bowed my head, “Alina then, thank you.” I continued. “Alina, please forgive me, but I’m afraid that I’m a little confused. Cythia and Arial have been being very, how shall I say it? Mysterious. Something about things that can impact me?”

Alina sat back and sighed heavily. “Yes, that is my fault. I have instructed them both to be wary of divulging too much information. You never know if the walls have ears.” I looked around the room quickly. “I thought that saying was just a cliche.”  The queen laughed suddenly. “Oh, Kind One! You forget where you are! In the Realm, the walls can literally have ears, and I’m not to sure if that truth hasn’t spilled over into your world.”

Her mood turned suddenly serious. “We have had reports from our allies in the dark woods that there are plans to use you as barter for pardoning the shape shifter, giving her the right to return to our realm. She wants to return and meet again with those who would overthrow the faeries of the four seasons.”

“Ages past, there were beings that could change into anything they had touched, these beings came to be known as shape shifters.  They believed that because they could change form, they were superior to the four seasons of faeries and should rightfully possess the keys of the crown and rule the realm. The four clans came together and exiled the shape shifters, denying them and their descendants, forever after, access to the realm that they so fervently wanted to control.”

“The four seasons of faeries worked together to produce a potion that could change anyone into the thing they touched, leveling the playing field.” Alina cupped my face in her hands. “You, Kind One, are the only human to ever experience the  effects of the changeling potion, and you did it out of love for the fae. There is no way to ever repay our debt to you, you will be forever changed as a result. We must, no, we will protect you. With your world in crises, this is the ideal time for them to stage a takeover.”

Alina stood and paced back and forth. “Our time here is short, the newborn animals are surviving and the crops are planted and growing. We have fulfilled our responsibilities for this turn of the wheel. We must relinquish the power of the season to Queen Lilith and the fire faeries of summer. Midsummer is upon us, but never fear, we will pass on this critical information and the situation will be dealt with, you will be safe.”

When Alina stopped speaking, Arial and the Emerald Guard came forward. Alina waved her wand over our heads and the palace dissolved in white light.

We were back on my porch when Cythia popped in. “Kind one, my queen has dispatched me with a gift from the flower faeries.” She held out her hand and in it was a butterfly from the queens crown. “This will guide you when you are lost.”

I had an uneasy feeling of things to come and all I could say was…”oh crap.”

© Tami Ruesch, The Misty World of Arial Hollyberry, 2009.

Much to my delight, Arial gave me permission to film one of the baby flower faeries as she was learning to fly this morning. She was a little unsteady at first, this being her first time out of the bud (flower faeries come into the world straight from the buds of spring flowers).

I’m not sure how Cythia will take the news that  one of her fledgling faeries was captured on film for the whole world to see, but like Arial said, “It’s easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission!”  She motioned for the newborn faerie to come out into middle of the yard and away from the ivy hedge so that I could see her better. Arial laughed, it was like a thousand tinkling chimes blowing in the wind as she said, “Besides, how many humans do you think will really believe it?”

I guess everyone will have to decide for themselves. As for me, I believe!